WWW.Chickcomics.com

Dear Curator,

What a fascinating site! Congratulations and well-done. I was not so much an avid collector as an avid user of Chick tracts in my zealous evangelical heyday. Either way, I loved them. Partly because they were so in-your-face.

Still, I was sophisticated enough to realize that the relatively crudely-drawn artwork and over-the-top approach were kinda dopey or kitschy. Maybe the tracts were unintentionally funny, but I figured that God uses foolish things to confound the wise of this world. Pompous theologians--arrogant enough to think that they could "study" God--might look down their noses at Jack Chick, but I admired him for trying to reach the common people for Christ.

The first Chick tract I ever saw was one I found at school: "Big Daddy." I wasn't even a Christian at the time, but it turned me into an immediate anti-evolutionist. My favorite tracts were fiery ones like "This Was Your Life," "Hi There," "Somebody Goofed," and "Bewitched." I could also appreciate the softer, simpler tracts like "Somebody Loves Me" and "One Way." My Bible study friends and I ordered large quantities of Chick tracts and distributed them wherever we could.

I was involved in Republican politics before becoming a Christian during my junior year in high school. Even though I was young, I'd made a number of important political friends. After my conversion, I sent an evangelistic letter and "The Assignment" to one of these friends--a prominent Iowa politician. Not too long afterwards, he dropped dead of a heart attack!

We got into trouble at the public library for putting Chick tracts inside magazines. We conducted "tract raids" on three "spiritually dead" churches in town (i.e., we stuffed hymnals with tracts on a weekday and stuffed tracts into the coats of church attendees while the apostate service was in progress). One of my friends was an engineering student and he created a "tract gun" which shot rolled-up tracts through the air while we passed by in our car.

In 1982, while I was in college, I wrote to Jack Chick to get permission to use pictures from "Why No Revival" in a book I was writing called "Prelude to the End of This Age, Part Two" (an examination of the relationship between Christianity and politics). Jack wrote back and gave me permission. If you're interested, I'd be happy to send you a photocopy of his letter and copies of some of the pages from my book (so you can see how I made use of his drawings).

I liked some of Jack's later tracts (e.g., "Reverend Wonderful"), but by 1983-84 I was moving away from dogmatic, reactionary, Bible-centered Christianity (Chick, dispensationalism, Francis Schaeffer) toward a more irenic, experiential, Christ-centered faith (Quakerism, Roman Catholic mystics, Jesus People simplicity). Even aside from this change in personal emphasis, I had a hard time with Chick's anti-Catholic crusade. I couldn't swallow the "Alberto" story. I agreed that the Roman Catholic Church was a false church (the product of an unholy alliance between a compromised church and an ambitious state in the 4th century), but it stretched the limits of my credulity when Chick was making such ridiculous claims about the KJV and C.I. Scofield. Even though I agreed that the RCC was heretical--even blasphemous--in many of its doctrines and practices, I believed that people like Bernard of Clairvaux, Nicholas of Cusa, Pascal, Guyon, Fenelon, and Molinos were genuine Christians...despite their Catholic-induced limitations, they obviously loved Christ and depended on him for their salvation.

Eventually, I completely soured on American evangelicalism. The whole evangelical subculture--not just Chick and odd ducks like him, but the televangelists, Billy Graham, the contemporary Christian music industry--struck me as way too shallow, materialistic, and culture-bound. Basically, very un-Christlike. I didn't want to be associated with it. I went on to get some graduate degrees, including a PhD. Today, I'm still a Christian and I'm fairly orthodox in my beliefs, but I still feel alienated from organized Christianity.

I retain a great love for two of my earliest Christian influences: Bob Dylan and U2. I realize that a lot of zealous Christians wrote them off long ago as having fallen away from the faith. The irony is that Dylan and Bono present a much truer face of Christianity to the world (in comparison to Jerry Falwell, Paul Crouch, or Amy Grant). One's relationship with Jesus Christ and allegiance to the Kingdom of God are so much deeper and more interesting than you'd ever guess if you derive your impressions from watching the 700 Club or listening to the latest piece of glossy Christian product. Dylan and Bono don't seem like "Christians" in the warped, modern-American sense of the word because they've actually MATURED in the faith!

I'm far away from my early Chick-fueled days, but I still have some affection for JTC's simple courage and burden for the unknowing lost (even if these good traits are sometimes misguided and misdirected). And, yes, I still have a bunch of tracts stored in a box in the basement. Your web site has inspired me to look for them. Maybe I'll distribute a few for old-times' sake.

Thanks for reading my long letter.

-Jeff

Hey Jeff,

That's a great story and fun to read. The only part I don't quite follow is comparing Chick with televangelists, Billy Graham, the contemporary Christian music industry, and other shallow, materialistic, culture-bound evangelists. To me, Chick is the polar opposite of those mainstream money makers. He's taken on topics he knew would lose him money and friends (as the Alberto comics certainly did). But he's always put his beliefs before his bottom line. I admire that greatly, even if I don't agree 100% with those beliefs.

We would treasure a copy of your Why No Revival letter and take-off book. We try to archive any Chick spin-off items.

PS. I'd love to get one of those "tract guns". I'm amazed the liberals didn't outlaw them along with the Assault Weapons.

Rev. 11.01.01